I Am a Savage Bunny
by Dancou-Maryuu
Summary: After the events of "Let It All Out", Chief Bogo visits Judy in hospital, only to find the rabbit is still wracked with self-doubt.


**I wasn't originally planning to write a sequel to Let It All Out, but it became more popular than I thought it'd be, so here we go...**

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"Hopps…"

"Chief?" Judy Hopps sat upright in her hospital bed as the enormous Cape buffalo entered the hospital room.

"I just came to let you know that your parents are going to be coming here soon." the gray bunny doe was unused to seeing the Chief of the Zootopia Police Department look so… sympathetic, "Your father tried to contact me at Precinct 1 not long before Mayor Bellwether called us from the Natural History Museum, wondering if you'd been in touch with me. I called them back just now and told them what had happened."

"Oh…" Judy had wondered why the Chief himself had been amongst the officers arresting the ewe mayor. "Were my parents worried?"

"Hopps. They're your parents." Bogo sighed, "If they aren't worrying about you, they're not doing their job properly."

"Do they know I'm alright?" Judy realized she should have contacted them as soon as Bellwether had been arrested.

"I told your father you hurt your leg, but that you should recover, yes." Bogo seemed impatient. "Hopps. I want to ask you something."

"I told you everything in the Museum, Chief…" Judy's eyes were glazed over.

"This isn't about that. This is off the record." Bogo remarked. "Hopps, you should have reported what you knew about these 'Night Howlers' to the police right away."

Judy snorted. "Yeah, I probably should have…"

Bogo was surprised at the rabbit's dismissiveness. "Hopps, what's on your mind?"

"Chief Bogo…" Judy turned to Bogo with a look that made him squirm. It was a look that he'd seen too many times. It reminded him of when Judy had turned in her badge, but with that unmistakable tinge of hopelessness, "Are you afraid of me?"

Bogo hadn't expected that question. "Should I be?"

Judy sighed and put her finger to her forehead, crunching up her face as she recalled the events in Little Rodentia. "'Abandoning my post. Inciting a scurry. Reckless endangerment of rodents.'" Judy turned back to Bogo, "And as of today you can add tampering with vital evidence, endangering a civilian – multiple times – causing a train collision, and damaging public property in the process. Doesn't _that_ scare you?"

Bogo was left speechless. "When did you tamper with evidence?"

"When I tried to take that train car instead of just getting out with the pellet gun like Nick wanted."

"Hopps, 'tampering with evidence' would have been painting those flowers orange! At the very least, you _tried_ to get them to us safely."

"It was careless either way! _I'm_ careless!" Hopps buried her face in the bedsheets as she began to weep, "A few wrong words from me and the entire city turns on itself! I never should have become a cop, Chief. I can't be trusted! I don't _need_ a Night Howler pellet to go savage! I-"

" _HOPPS_!" Bogo barked.

Judy reflexively sat upright, as if she were standing to attention.

Bogo took a deep breath. "Hopps, where is this navel-gazing coming from?!"

Judy sighed. "Nick…"

"Did that fox say something to you?"

"No! No!" Judy shook her head, "It's what _I_ did to him!"

"What?"

"Nick told me he lived by a motto; 'never let them see that they get to you.' He's spent so much of his life burying his emotions under cheap jokes and a slick attitude." Judy scrunched up the bedsheets under her fists. "I knew the real Nick was in there – the Nick that actually _felt_ things. But I only saw that Nick a few times. The first time was when he told me why he became that way. The second time was after the press conference. The third time was when he went… savage.

"Back at the museum… he was… he didn't _act_ like a savage. He acted like a frightened _kit_! He was terrified of _me_! And the more I think about it, the less I blame him!"

"Because of the press conference?"

"Not just the press conference." Judy murmured. "Every time I got him involved in the case, I put him in danger. Even when I tried to make things up to him, I got him in danger. You wanted to know why I didn't come to you when I figured out about the Night Howlers? Well, all I could think about was making it up to Nick after the press conference, and _now_ look at him! It's _my_ fault he's gone savage! Is it any wonder he was afraid of me?!"

Bogo took a while to take all this in. Judy buried her head in her arms again.

"Hopps…"

"If I hadn't joined the force… this wouldn't have happened… Bellwether probably had me figured for a pawn the moment I got out of the Academy. _I_ got Nick like this… He doesn't deserve to suffer for my… stupidity…"

"Hopps, Wilde's condition most likely won't be permanent." Bogo now adopted a reassuring tone, "You can thank your parents for that."

"What?"

"When I explained the situation to your father, he realized what you had found out, and informed me that an uncle of yours had gone savage previously. He said your grandparents were able to cure him with some sort of herbal remedy. Your parents have offered to assist the doctors in deriving a cure for the savage predators – including Wilde."

That seemed to make Judy feel a bit better. She smiled, but tears began to flow out of her eyes. "Leave it to my parents to pick up after my messes…"

"Hopps, this wasn't your fault. Bellwether would have found another way to expose Lionheart's operation and stir up a panic. It may interest you to know that you were not the only one to suggest Night Howlers as the cause of the Outbreak."

"Oh?"

"The combined ZPD/ZMS taskforce created to help deal with the Outbreak encountered a few mammals – usually those versed in botany – who pointed out the effects those flowers had. However, none of this got far since it turns out that Bellwether had paid off members of the taskforce to suppress these findings – discount them by pointing out that only predators were afflicted. It took Bellwether's confession for us to consider the possibility that someone was _targeting_ predators.

"We now know that even Precinct 1 had officers in on the scheme. If you _had_ gone to me first, there was the possibility that your discovery would have been leaked out to Ramses, and he would have closed up shop and moved elsewhere before we could get a warrant."

Bogo sighed. "What I'm trying to say is, that if anyone is to blame for the way things turned out… it's me."

"What?!"

"You _are_ rash, impulsive, and naïve," the buffalo averted his eyes from the rabbit in shame, "but I've seen many young officers with those same problems. The only thing that made you any different was the fact that you are a bunny.

"Now, the typical protocol for new officers is to partner them up with the precinct's senior officers, so that they may act as mentor figures. I did not do so for you. Instead, I let my pride get the better of me and placed you on parking duty. When you objected to this role, I should have seen the warning signs, but instead I saw a pair of long ears and another of Lionheart's PR schemes that he'd blame _me_ for if something untoward happened to you in the line of duty.

"I tried rationalizing it, telling myself that you needed to get acclimated to the city, that your ego needed to be reined in. I thought giving you forty-eight hours without backup would teach you something about humility, but Wilde said it himself back at the Rainforest District – I was setting you up to fail, even if I didn't realize that myself.

"Had I given you a partner, you would have had someone there with you to help you address your deficiencies – turn them into strengths. The fact that a civilian had to fill this role says more about _my_ lack of judgment than about yours. You weren't the only one that let their prejudices get the better of them."

Bogo turned back to Judy. "What I'm trying to say, Hopps, is that you aren't the only one who wants to redeem themselves. If you are a 'savage bunny' like you say, it's only because I _made_ you into one."

Judy was speechless.

Bogo glanced at a file in his hand. "Now, thanks to the uproar about the subway crash, it's already leaked out to the press that you had a hand in Mayor Bellwether's arrest, so you may have a chance to redeem yourself in the media's eyes for your role in the crisis-"

"I don't want the media's forgiveness." Judy interjected.

Bogo paused, then sighed wistfully, "No, I understand. Just saying you're sorry isn't enough for you. You want your redemption to be something more concrete. If it comes to that… There may be objections, but it would go a long way to my own redemption if I did for you what I _should_ have done for you when you first came to Precinct 1."

Judy seemed surprised. "What are you saying, sir?!"

"I'm saying that if you wish to rejoin the force, the option is available to you, whereupon you would receive on-the-field guidance from a senior officer."

"Sir, I'm guilty of property damage at least! I'm gonna get a criminal record! There's no _way_ I'd be let back in!"

"That would only be a problem if you were charged." Bogo explained, "Now, none of your story about Ramses' lab is on record. If you were to make your testimony against Bellwether dependent on the city overlooking charges against you over what happened while you revealed her scheme, then a criminal record would not be a problem."

Judy gaped. "Isn't that… dishonest, sir?"

"No more dishonest than other things you did in the investigation, but well within your rights."

"I… I didn't think you'd approve of that…"

"Don't be so quick to judge me, Hopps." Bogo seemed to grin at that.

Judy sighed. "I'm… I'm grateful, sir… But… I'm not sure I deserve redemption. I don't even know if I _can_ make the world a better place after what I've done."

"Hopps…" Bogo wasn't sure what was still keeping the grey doe down.

Judy's brows then raised. "Would what you suggested work for Nick- er, for Wilde, too?"

"Assuming he's well enough to testify against Bellwether, it should…"

"Well, when he comes out of treatment, could you tell him that? It's just that…" Judy studied the bedsheets, "I know Nick's had a rough-and-tumble past, but that's mainly because no one sees him as more than a shifty, untrustworthy fox. I've seen the real Nick, and deep down, he wants to help mammals."

"Are you saying he should join the police?" Bogo raised an eyebrow.

"I know he wants to." Judy explained. "Right before the press conference, I gave him an application form and said if I needed a partner on the force, the option was there for him."

Bogo gaped. He hadn't expected a lone wolf like Judy would actively ask for a partner.

"After the press conference, he gave it back to me, saying that it was best if I didn't have a predator for a partner." Judy continued, "But… I noticed that he'd filled the form out… I have it back in Bunnyburrow, I framed it even. I know he _wanted_ to join the force at least…"

Judy stared longingly out the hospital window. "And I think he'd make a good cop. He's streetwise, he's observant, he _always_ looks before he leaps, he's good with mammals – he somehow put up with _me_ being a nutcase the whole time… He'd probably be a way better cop than me…"

Judy stared at Bogo in determination. "So as long as we're talking about redemption, sir, I think seeing Nick in uniform would be redemption enough for me. I don't care if I get my badge back. I don't care if he becomes my partner. I don't care if he never forgives me for what I've done. Just as long as he gets a chance to be the kind, upstanding fox he wants to be; that's all I care about now."

Bogo was surprised at this sudden surge of willpower. He'd thought Judy had given into resignation, but it seemed she now had _something_ to motivate her at the very least…

"Very well…" Bogo stood up straight, "Once he is recovered, I will tell Wilde that he has that option. The Mammal Inclusion Initiative is still in effect, and taking in more predator officers would go a long way to helping rebuild the ZPD's image, so _that_ would help him get admitted at the very least."

"Thank you, sir…" Judy now seemed to be crying tears of joy, "But could you not tell Nick I told you all this? I don't want that to inform his decision."

"Very well, I won't." Bogo began to move toward the door, "But I think I should remind you, Hopps… When we got to the museum, we found you and Wilde in each other's arms. I've seen the museum's security camera footage, and I noticed that _he_ approached _you_ before you finally hugged him, and when officers came to tranquilize him, his first instinct was to hold onto you _tighter_. Even when we separated the pair of you, we had to use considerable force to pry him off of you."

Bogo opened the door, "Just consider that, Hopps…"

Now, it was just the bunny in the hospital bed, alone with her thoughts…

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 **I wrote this after hearing some rather lacerating things said about Judy's recklessness on r/Zootopia (you know who you are). This fic is my way of having Judy confront that.**


End file.
